Bad beer: Give it away, or dump it?

[PasbitinusBluinusRibbinus]

Here's a question I'm sure all of us have been faced with. Let's say you brew a batch of sub-par beer, in my case, under attenuation. Although far from undrinkable, you know it's not the best you can do. Do you dump this batch, or do you give it away to friends and family?

I don't want to perpetuate the idea that homebrew is bad or bring down other's perception of my beer... but dumping beer seems like such a waste!

And no, I don't want to drink it. I have plenty of good beer!

Thoughts?

 

[Brettomomyces]

Unless you've got one of those garbage disposal friends that has a dead tongue I would just dump it, and remind yourself you gotta make a lot of bad beer to make great beer.

Otherwise you're going to give all your friends/family a bad impression of what you're really capable of.

 

[dfhar]

I'm struggling with the same question right now. I have a batch of Dortmunder that I accidentally oxidized while kegging. It's not horrible, but definitely has an "off" oxidation flavor.

 

[PasbitinusBluinusRibbinus]

Yeah, it was just an avoidable mistake, cold crashed too early trying to rush a beer into the ferm chamber (and before I had taken a gravity reading). Hmm. This one may have to get dumped.

 

[Psylocide]

I would never give my friends/family anything that is sub-par... that's just a poor reflection on your skills.

I have given an "off" beer to a buddy, but he brews as well and I made him fully aware that it was forked up from the start.

 

[DNKDUKE]

Cook with it.
Some of the best roast beef - roast pork - boil some bratwurst in it - give it to someone you know that cooks.

 

[TheCADJockey]

Confronting the same issue myself. I have a hefeweizen that I think is not good. I'm taking it to the LHBS in an hour and a half or so to see what they think before I do anything drastic.

 

[Rockn_M]

If you have the room for it you can set it off to the side and wait for a party. When everyone has had a few break those out. They'll think it's the best thing they ever had.

 

[Hello]

When I started brewing the few people who had drank homebrew said it was just plain bad and therefore, there was no way I'd produce a quality product. So no, I would not give bad or sub-par beer away if you wouldn't even bother to drink it yourself for the simple reason that people who have had one bottle of sub-par home brew are bound to think all homebrew is sub-par.

 

[PLOVE]

Confronting the same issue myself. I have a hefeweizen that I think is not good. I'm taking it to the LHBS in an hour and a half or so to see what they think before I do anything drastic.

Curious how this will go.

Brewer:
"Hey, buddy, can you try this beer? I don't think it's very good".

"Expert LHBS":
"You're right. This beer is swill. . . "

Maybe lie to him and ask him which homebrew contest to enter it in. See if you get an honest evaluation. We are all our own worst critics. I'm often amazed at how important expectations are. I've brewed some lagers that we're kinda "off". Call it a Cottage style Saison, and suddenly it tastes spot on. . . perception is 9/10th the rule - even with beer.

P

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Give it to homeless people.

They will absolutely ****ing love you!

 

[hopsandhops]

I read on here or a blog post awhile ago "life's too short to drink bad beer". I'll be dumping a Vienna/cascade smash that overattenuated and then froze when my kegerator thermostat went berserk a few weeks ago. Only dumping now that I have an IPA ready though

 

[cujocon]

Set aside and infect with Sour goodness...In a Year, your mess will become your treasure!

 

[TheCADJockey]

By not good, I meant I think it has an off-flavor and they are going to let me know if it is in fact something that went wrong or not.

 

[Xpertskir]

There are only 3 types of Homebrew

Beers too good to give away
Beers too bad to give away
and the rest....

dump it

 

[PasbitinusBluinusRibbinus]

There are only 3 types of Homebrew

Beers too good to give away
Beers too bad to give away
and the rest....

dump it

Haha! This is spot on.

 

[Chadwick]

I always try to keep more bottles on hand than I need for situations like this. I've made several beers in the past that was sub-par. Some of these, with extended aging, became some of my best beers.

I would keep the beer. Let it age some more and see what it does. I did a batch a few years ago that had a large amount of honey in it. After 3 weeks of bottle conditioning I was convinced to pitch it out. It tasted worse than bad. Amazingly, 6 more weeks of aging and it became wonderful. I was completely blown away that it would transform that much with extended aging.

 

[Psylocide]

By not good, I meant I think it has an off-flavor and they are going to let me know if it is in fact something that went wrong or not.

I would approach it like, "Hey guy, will you try my Hefeweizen that I made with ingredients from your store?"

This could go one of two ways:

1. "Hey Buddy, that's not half bad... great job."

2. "Ugh *HURCH* Good god, WTF happened here?"

Follow up with:

"Well, I was hoping you could tell me."

 

[TheCADJockey]

I would approach it like, "Hey guy, will you try my Hefeweizen that I made with ingredients from your store?"

This could go one of two ways:

1. "Hey Buddy, that's not half bad... great job."

2. "Ugh *HURCH* Good god, WTF happened here?"

Follow up with:

"Well, I was hoping you could tell me."

Yea but they know it's not from their store. Bought the kit online. They know it's coming and they are very nice about helping out with such things. I just wanted to give it time before I rushed to take it down. I'll update as to what they say, in case anyone is curious.

 

[LandoLincoln]

What the hell is wrong with all of you people?! If you have friends or family that want this beer, then GIVE IT TO THEM! Tell them that the batch is sub-par but drinkable and if they want it, then the money spent on the batch didn't go to waste. They probably already know what your really good beers taste like, so they're not going to think that you're a bad brewer.

All beer deserves a loving home!

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

Neither, you drink it as payment for your mistakes. Your friends deserve your good beer, not your junk.

 

[cernst151]

I've brewed a lot of good beer and a little not very good beer. I've never had a beer that was so bad it was undrinkable. Personally, if it's just a little bit of off flavors (not that it tastes like you're chewing on a band-aid) I'd keep it. Sometimes off flavors will age out. If not, it will make a good third beer. Drink a great beer first, a good beer second and by the third beer this one will taste fine. But that's me, I hate being wasteful.

 

[cernst151]

Besides, you probably have a bunch of friends that drink crappy beer all the time. Feed it to them.

 

[Sailingeric]

If the big brewers poured out sub par beer then how is that Natty Light and Busch Beer stay in business??? Have some friends over, give them all a bottle and soon it will be gone and not wasted and I like to say - there are no bad beers, just beers I would not drink again.

 

[Psylocide]

If the big brewers poured out sub par beer then how is that Natty Light and Busch Beer stay in business??? Have some friends over, give them all a bottle and soon it will be gone and not wasted and I like to say - there are no bad beers, just beers I would not drink again.

I keep the lights on over at Busch... go through about five 30 packs of Busch Light a month.

 

[ChiefIlliniwek]

If you have the room for it you can set it off to the side and wait for a party. When everyone has had a few break those out. They'll think it's the best thing they ever had.

+1 to this. As long as the off-flavors aren't too bad and it's drinkable, save it for a party. Start using it for beer pong about three games in. People will drink it, and they won't know the difference between it and Keystone, as long as you're not giving them poison.

It's a sin against man to throw out beer.

 

[madscientist451]

So how bad is it? If you take a sip, do you want to take another one?
If you take 2 sips do you want to drink the whole pint? If yes, I'd say bottle it, keep it and drink ut yourself. If you wouldn't drink a whole glass of it just dump it unless the problem is something you think will improve with time. If the beer is under attenuated, try bottling a 12 pack without any added sugar and let it bottle condition for a few weeks at room temp or warmer, maybe the attenuation will finish up in the bottle. Make sure you chill it before opening the bottles though.

 

[feinbera]

+1 for sour it, if it's really just underattenuated and doesn't have anything else wrong with it.

Although, if that's the case, and it's not too reliant on fresh hoppy flavor, you could also just warm it back up, get another packet of yeast started in a couple liters of starter wort, and dump it in at high krausen to finish the job...

 

[FrizzleFry]

Seems like there was another option, one that involved copper pipe...

 

[day_trippr]

Never had to deal with a dumper [crosses self three times] but one thing's for sure - I wouldn't even consider giving it to anyone I know or would ever, EVER see again.

A dumper is just that.

Dump the frickin' thing and move on - without leaving a trail of victims...

Cheers!

 

[brick_haus]

Haha. Reminds me of the only time I brewed a beer that even I wouldn't drink ( I like to make myself suffer through the bad ones to teach myself a lesson!). A friend of mine who is always bugging me to give him some beer ( he always seems to have an empty corny handy) took it, even after my warning!!! Next time I saw him he proceeded to chew me out for giving it to him. All is well now and he's back to begging for homebrew again.

 

[AlCophile]

Freeze it, pour off the liquid from the ice(water), let crud settle, now try it.

 

[kettlehead]

I hate liver my wife loves it! Point being everyone has different taste.

 

[kmckiou]

I've brewed a lot of good beer and a little not very good beer. I've never had a beer that was so bad it was undrinkable. Personally, if it's just a little bit of off flavors (not that it tastes like you're chewing on a band-aid) I'd keep it. Sometimes off flavors will age out. If not, it will make a good third beer. Drink a great beer first, a good beer second and by the third beer this one will taste fine. But that's me, I hate being wasteful.

I agree. Evidently even my worst batch became reasonable. I drink all my mistakes. Age it and figure out how to save it.

 

[TrickyDick]

+1 for sour it, if it's really just underattenuated and doesn't have anything else wrong with it.

Although, if that's the case, and it's not too reliant on fresh hoppy flavor, you could also just warm it back up, get another packet of yeast started in a couple liters of starter wort, and dump it in at high krausen to finish the job...

I agree, that as long as it's not a overly bitter or hoppy beer, you can probably make a nice sour out of this. Try a pack of roeselare, even an aged one past its prime from the discount section of your LHBS....

TD

 

[ghohn]

Like a few people mentioned previously, if you've got space, sour it.

Otherwise, if you preface the heck out of the fact it's a mistake to friends, I see no harm in serving it to them. Free is free and we are all adult enough to make the call on what we put in our mouths.

 

[oli-aus]

I recently had this problem with a Belgium beer out of a kit, it was fine but just not interesting enough to drink the whole of the 60 bottles I made.

So I am experimenting with making an eisen-quad.

I have freeze distilled the remaining 15 bottles and am going to add some steeped specialty grains to it then bottle again in about a month.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1423894815.701612.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1423894830.569744.jpg

P.S. I have no idea how this will turn out but I recon it's worth the gamble if your ready to chuck the batch.

 

[Chadwick]

I'm surprised at how quickly many people are recommending altering, dumping, distilling, or any other number of things to this beer. What happened to aging the beer so it can mature?

If it was mine I would bottle it and forget it for about 6 months. Someone possibly already posted this link, and if so, sorry. But here it is. A good read.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

In my formative brewing years, I was trying to clone Boston Lager. On one of my batches, I was close, but it left a weird aftertaste. Sort of like yuengling.

I hated it. I was gonna use it for cooking beer, and a buddy wanted to try it. I laid down all the usual disclaimers.

He loved it. I still brew it for him to this day. I still hate it.